The Hero's Remains
On his way to meet the younger sibling of fan-cafe president Kwon Ga-hee, Kang-to answered his phone. It was Lady Gyeongsin, and she sounded almost giddy with excitement.
"Kang-to, Dharma Master."
"Hello?"
"Hello, my foot—what on earth is all this I’m hearing?"
"What is it?"
"I hear you did some kind of shamanic verification experiment with a broadcaster over in England or France... somewhere like that?"
"Yes."
"And your patron spirit's oracle found the remains of hundreds of Korean War veterans?"
"Not hundreds."
"And now I’m hearing you solved a cold case, too?"
"That was only one case."
"Kang-to, Dharma Master..."
"Please, take it slow."
"You should be proud of yourself. Truly proud. Our Heavenly Sea Maiden has given birth to a national shaman."
"Thank you."
"And here I was told you were the one who called Little Bodhisattva on your way in and out of Gyeryong Mountain? I heard she had something like a hundred missed calls from you. She said her spiritual father must have turned the world upside down."
"That’s a bit much..."
"What are you talking about? Is this something just anyone can do? Especially now, when even the whole business of guiding spirits onward has started getting questioned because those fake shamans are running wild?"
"It’s thanks to stubborn people like you, Auntie, still standing their ground."
"I’ll buy you a meal sometime. No, a meal isn’t enough..."
"A meal is enough."
"Sol-bi’s doing well at school, I hope?"
"She’s monopolizing first place in the entire school."
"I know she’s clever, but... that well?"
"There’s only one first-grade student, and that’s Sol-bi."
"......"
"......"
"Well, then?"
After a brief silence, Lady Gyeongsin burst out laughing. Kang-to had intentionally turned the conversation to Sol-bi, and it did exactly what he hoped: it cooled the older woman’s overheated excitement.
"Anyway, I’m proud of you. I’m going to go around bragging about it, whether people like it or not. That’s all right, isn’t it?"
"Of course. You’re my spiritual mother, aren’t you?"
"Oh, spare me. I’m hardly worthy of that title... Still, keep fighting, all right?"
Lady Gyeongsin’s excitement didn’t fade right away. No sooner had the call ended than Little Bodhisattva Chae-rin rang him next.
She hadn’t called earlier because she was worried it might interfere with Kang-to. But once she heard that Lady Gyeongsin had already spoken to him, she finally reached out.
"You were amazing."
She didn’t waste words. She packed all the impact she needed into a single sentence, which was perfectly Chae-rin—clean, simple, and to the point.
"But please make sure you take care of yourself. If you overdo a spirit descent, you end up laid up with body aches."
"Understood."
He ended the call with a simple farewell. Lady Gyeongsin and Little Bodhisattva Chae-rin were both so genuinely happy for him that he could only feel grateful.
Two hours before meeting the Cheonjo Group family, he got out of a taxi and headed into the restaurant where they had arranged to meet.
"Dharma Master."
Kwon Ha-eun, seated by the window, raised a hand to him. She wasn’t alone; she’d brought along her colleague, PD Cha Yoon-sun.
"Hello."
Kang-to sat down opposite Kwon Ha-eun.
"This is our Cha PD. You know her, right?"
Kwon Ha-eun introduced the woman beside her. Kang-to had met Cha PD through an oracle. She had resisted her team leader’s bullying by swallowing poison, and because of that, JBS had been thrown into an uproar that even reached the National Assembly.
"I’ve heard a lot about you," Cha PD said politely. Kang-to knew her only through Kwon Ha-eun: a shaman who delivered oracles as if possessed by the gods. At first, she’d had her doubts, but after seeing the team leader get fired, she’d come to trust him.
"How are you feeling?"
"Thanks to you..."
"I told our Cha PD your oracle, and she recovered right away," Kwon Ha-eun cut in.
Fortunately, Cha PD’s poisoning had been discovered before the golden hour slipped away, so the damage had not been too severe.
"That BBC documentary, Monorama... that was incredible. It wasn’t even a documentary anymore—it felt like a drama."
Kwon Ha-eun was interested in the BBC project, too. Her specialty was documentaries, so of course she couldn’t help being fascinated.
"Should I have done it with you, then?" Kang-to asked, testing the waters.
"Not a chance. If you’d done it with me, there’s no way it would’ve caused that kind of ripple. JBS would never have supported experts that dazzling. They’d have told us to cover it with our own bodies, no doubt."
"Sometimes brute force is the better answer."
"True, but in that case, verification was the whole point, wasn’t it? Only the BBC could’ve handled that."
"That’s right. I watched it with Kwon PD, too, and the lineup was vicious: the world’s foremost authority on recovering remains, a master geneticist, and veteran exhumation specialists..."
"I was grateful for that, of course, but I was a little disappointed, too. If we’d worked with a domestic broadcaster instead, wouldn’t that have been even better?"
"You dropped a hint on the island last time, remember? Honestly, I never would’ve guessed it would be the BBC, much less Monorama."
"You remember that?"
"Of course. I told you I wanted to try covering shamanism sometime, didn’t I?"
"Then do you remember when I said I had something else in mind back then?"
"I’ve assumed this BBC project was what you meant."
"There’s something else. Something even more explosive than the BBC project—at least in Korea."
"Something bigger than the BBC project?"
"Yes."
"Dharma Master..."
"The BBC bet everything on me. What about you two?"
"What do you mean?"
"I’m asking whether you can throw yourselves into this with the same commitment the BBC did."
"I don’t know what it is yet, but if it’s an investigation on the level of the BBC’s remains project, I can stake everything on it."
"Me too. Hell, if it comes to it, I can always hand in my resignation."
Cha PD was on board as well. She was someone who had experienced Kang-to’s oracle indirectly, and after what BBC had accomplished, it was no exaggeration to say the women’s response was wholehearted.
"I’ll say this without hesitation..."
Meeting both producers’ eyes, Kang-to went on in a low, steady voice.
"This is several times more important than the BBC’s excavation of British soldiers’ remains."
"Dharma Master."
"This is it."
Kang-to slid a single photograph across the table.
"Oh my."
"Huh."
A tidal wave crashed through both producers’ faces. It was an old photograph, nothing more.
And yet for any Korean, it was the face of a hero. That was why the shock on their faces kept spreading, wider and wider, as though it might never stop.
He called the island from in front of the five-star Baekje Hotel.
Once a day, Kang-to recharged his heart through Sol-bi, and Sol-bi did the same through him. Whenever the time came for their scheduled call, she would stretch her neck out toward the phone and wait for it like a little bird.
"Daddy."
He could hear the wind in the background, so she must have been out near the mudflats.
"Where are you, Sol-bi?"
"I’m catching crabs with Oppa Hong-seo and Unni Tae-hee. I caught two flower crabs."
"You didn’t get pinched, did you?"
"Not anymore. If you grab them from behind, they can’t pinch you. I’ll show you how later."
How far was Sol-bi’s evolution supposed to go?
"Daddy, when are you coming?"
"Tomorrow."
"Yay!"
With just that one word, Sol-bi was practically dancing. For children, their parents were the pillars of heaven itself, no less than Superman.
"Don’t you have any homework today?"
He couldn’t help asking his clever little daughter about schoolwork. A parent’s anxiety, plain and simple.
"We finished everything at school. I got a hundred on dictation today."
"Really?"
"Yep. Oppa Hong-seo got sixty-five, and Unni Tae-hee got eighty."
"Hey, that’s because I couldn’t think of it!"
Hong-seo, standing nearby, immediately objected.
"Do you never think of it, Oppa? You sure remember food just fine, though."
Sol-bi’s rebuttal came out with flawless logic.
"Sol-bi."
"Hmm?"
"If your clothes get wet, you could catch a cold, so play a little longer and then come back in."
"Okay. Bye, Daddy."
The most he could manage to throw at his spirited daughter was a bit of nagging. But he couldn’t help it. Sol-bi was just that precious.
Besides, when children got sick... truly, no one who had never been a single dad could understand that kind of fear.
"Lee Kang-to."
Hyung-wook waved to him from the hallway in front of the restaurant.
"Were you waiting for me?"
"What else? The BBC hero is here, after all."
"Sounds like you’re teasing me."
"How could I? Come on in. Grandma, Father, and Mother are all waiting. Our Eun-seo even rushed back home with her fiancé-to-be in tow."
"Oh, right. You said you were on an overseas business trip?"
"I said come on in."
Hyung-wook pointed toward the inner room.
"Lee Kang-to."
In the VVIP room, Song Ji-na opened her arms wide in welcome.
"Wonderful. That’s the only word for it."
"Thank you."
"You were magnificent. A sensation in England..."
The chairman’s welcome was warm, too.
And then—
"Lee Kang-to."
Chairwoman Eun Jeong-mi took his hand.
"M-mother..."
Kang-to’s voice was a little awkward. The word didn’t sit on his tongue as naturally as "father" did. Still, he wasn’t a child anymore. He had to match the mood of the room.
"You worked hard."
Chairwoman Eun’s praise was warm in its own quiet way.
"Lee Kang-to, I’m Lee Eun-seo—your sister."
The woman standing behind them extended her hand. With her cool, polished looks, Eun-seo had the easy confidence of someone born for the entertainment world. Running celebrities through the chaos of the industry had clearly sharpened her already brisk, energetic personality.
"And this is Dr. Oh Chang-seo, the AI expert I’m getting engaged to next month."
"I’m Oh Chang-seo. I’ve heard a lot about you."
Dr. Oh introduced himself with a handshake. In that instant, Kang-to’s brow knotted sharply. The reason was the ill omen clinging to Dr. Oh—a Banansal, the kind of fate that carried a man along a road of success and promotion—but what truly troubled him was the darker force shimmering behind it.
"He’s my little brother, so you can drop the formalities."
Eun-seo patted him on the back, and the oracle was cut off.
"All right, everyone. Before the food comes out, I need your attention."
Song Ji-na clapped her hands to gather everyone’s focus.
"First, let’s give Kang-to a round of applause."
Clap, clap, clap.
"You all know why, so I’ll skip the explanation..."
"......"
"I’ve prepared a little gift for our Kang-to, who fought so hard."
Song Ji-na gave a car key a little shake.
"Grandma, I don’t need a car."
"I do. I can’t bear the thought of my grandson living without one. So I picked this out on Hyung-wook’s recommendation."
The key flew into Kang-to’s hand. Hyung-wook, sitting beside him, gave him a sly wink. With the room in that mood, there was no way he could refuse.
Dinner came next. It was French cuisine, the sort his grandmother loved, and there was wine as well—extraordinary wine, in fact.
Richebourg Grand Cru.
Song Ji-na described it with such elegance that even a bottle that could make Romanée-Conti bow its head sounded somehow more noble. A 1985 Burgundy aristocrat, the very name of ultra-high-end wine.
"I’d been saving this, but I’m opening it today. If we’re officially welcoming my third grandson, this much is only right, don’t you think?"
The first glass was poured for Kang-to, and he passed the other glasses around himself. It was Song Ji-na’s quiet way of looking after everyone.
"Now then, to welcome our Kang-to."
"Cheers."
At the chairman’s cue, they all drank.
Truthfully, Kang-to didn’t know a thing about wine. To him, it couldn’t beat the makgeolli from the brewery near the university he used to attend. But alcohol was about atmosphere. Since everyone was smiling, the taste hardly mattered.
"Little brother."
Eun-seo filled his glass again.
"You remember that manager we had, right?"
"Yes."
"Ever since then, he says he gets the shakes just seeing a fortune-teller’s place."
"Tell him he’ll be fine now."
As she spoke, she glanced at Dr. Oh. He was deep in conversation with the chairman, and his smooth skin and well-practiced manners made a good first impression. So good, in fact, that even the chairman and Chairwoman Eun looked pleased.
But Kang-to wasn’t pleased. He couldn’t shake the strange, alien feeling that clung to the man.
"Let me get a taste of that oracle too. From the looks of it, everyone else here’s already tried it, directly or indirectly."
"You tested the waters through that manager, didn’t you?"
"That didn’t let me speak my mind."
"Let’s make time for it later."
Kang-to spoke as he looked over at Dr. Oh. He had a feeling he needed to.
"Kang-to."
The chairman called him over, and at the same moment Chairwoman Eun placed another gift in his hands.
"About the island scholarship project—I’ll take it on."
It was the formalization of something Song Ji-na had mentioned in passing not long ago.
"Thank you."
He accepted her kindness with proper respect. Chairwoman Eun answered by patting him on the shoulder, and that was enough to stand in for any further words.
"Chairman Lee."
After the wine glasses had gone around once more, Song Ji-na spoke again.
"Shouldn’t our Kang-to Dharma Master be given some useful role in the group?"
"That would be good."
"What do you think, Kang-to?"
"I’m grateful just to hear it."
"I’m not saying you have to stop being a shaman. You could be an adviser, an outside director..."
"I’d be grateful for that, too."
"Are you refusing?"
"More than that, I still have one promise left to keep."
"I know. But you can stop now. With the justification you wanted, you’ve already built up more than enough. There isn’t anyone here who’ll belittle you anymore."
"Still, I have to finish the main event. The British soldiers’ remains were only the opening move for that."
"That was only the opening move?"
Eun-seo’s eyes flew wide.
"Good. Then let’s hear it. The big picture our Kang-to Dharma Master is drawing."
"I’m going to China."
"China? Why?"
"One of our nation’s heroes lies there. I’m going to bring home his remains."
"A hero? Who is it?"
"A man whose name makes every Korean’s heart burn."
Looking around the table, Kang-to revealed his final goal in a voice heavy with resolve.
It was the exhumation of Ahn Jung-geun's remains.